How to Measure Social Media ROI in Easy Steps

We just learned that Facebook ROI” only gets searched around 170 times per month, whilst “how to get more likes” gets 880 searches. Does this surprise you? So people are focusing on boosting engagement more than making sure that their social media campaign is actually generating money. And isn’t that the whole point of any marketing activity – traditional or digital? To grow a business by acquiring more customers or users?! In the world of business, social media marketing statistics engagement is a means to an end, and that end is generating income. The idea is that, the more engagement you get, the more likely it is that people will know and trust your brand, and eventually purchase your service / product. It’s part of the Customer Journey after all. And even though pursuing engagement can be a lot of fun, doing so should never distract you from the overarching objective – making money! The truth is that, even though working out your social media ROI can seem daunting, simply focusing on engagement is really not a viable alternative. So let’s figure out how to measure ROI in three intuitive steps. This formula, however, is very much a skeleton for you to flesh out. Decide what you count as a return or what you count as a cost. To get the most accurate figure, include everything top social media marketing companies you possibly can which, unfortunately, means poring over your accounts. When you measure your social media ROI, calculate the ROI for each channel separately. You’ll then be able to better see which platforms your campaigns are performing well on and which they aren’t. Adding together your platform-specific ROI figures will give you your total social media ROI, and probably a more accurate one than if you’d calculated it outright since it will take into account the detailed costs and returns associated with each platform’s campaign.

Decide What Success Looks Like

You can only work out your ROI if you have an idea of what a successful campaign would look like. Think about what you want your campaign to achieve – perhaps it’s generating a particular number of leads in a set period of time; maybe it’s converting a certain amount of people on your landing page; or driving traffic to your websites online store. Failure to connect tangible business goals to social media campaigns is probably the reason social media marketing training behind Altimeter’s claim that only 34 percent of businesses feel that their social media strategy is connected with their business outcomes. Some key metrics to monitor include: reach, traffic, leads, customer, and conversion rates. Keeping a close eye on how your social media campaign affects these should give you a good understanding of whether or not it’s effective – whether or not it’s making you money. There are quite a few options available to you when it comes to monitoring your social media campaigns. But be prepared, to get the most from these you may have to track pages by adding tracking code to URLs, build tailored landing pages, and record and integrate the data you receive. Google Analytics allows you to monitor who your audience is, how they behave on your site, where they come from, social media marketing classes whether they convert, and much more besides. Adding Google Analytics to your own landing pages and websites is a great way to collect data concerning your own sites’ performance. However, it’s not easy (though it is possible) to use Google Analytics to monitor and find out which of your campaigns is bringing in the most traffic. To do so, you’ll first need to create a Google Analytics campaign for each of your social networks. This involves URL tagging, which uses UTM codes.

Social Media Marketing Plan Creating a Strategy

Most small-business owners realize that social media is a critical component of a comprehensive marketing strategy, but they don’t know where to begin. With dozens of social networks gaining widespread adoption, it’s tough to imagine a manageable strategy that covers all the bases. That’s why it’s important to develop a strategic social media marketing plan to stay on-task and on-track. Here’s how to get it done. Who are you trying to reach? To plan an effective social media strategy, you need to have a clear picture of your ideal customer. Armed with this data, you can match up your social media marketing efforts with the social networks where your social media marketing news customers are spending their time. A strategic social media marketing plan requires more than just throwing out a few tweets or status updates. “Social media is like a party; barging into a group already talking and saying ‘buy my stuff’ is rude,” advises Michael Procopio, co-author of 42 Rules for B2B Social Media Marketing and a 15-year veteran of the marketing industry. Procopio says the route to success in social media is finding a way to offer value without over-selling. This can be done by offering discounts, but also by providing information around your products or services. Megan McManus, social media marketing network digital and social content coordinator at Blueview Agency, suggests figuring out solutions to frequently asked questions and offering those ideas through original photo or video content. “In social media strategy, the business should also conduct some trial and error to see what kind of posts their audiences like. Some audiences will respond well to product information while others may prefer to hear about a business's community involvement,” she explains.